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Parthian language

The Parthian language, also known as Arsacid Pahlavi and Pahlawānīg, is an extinct ancient Northwestern Iranian language once spoken in Parthia, a region situated in present-day northeastern Iran and Turkmenistan. Parthian was the language of state of the Arsacid Parthian Empire (248 BC – 224 AD), as well as of its eponymous branches of the Arsacid dynasty of Armenia, Arsacid dynasty of Iberia, and the Arsacid dynasty of Caucasian Albania.

Parthian

Parthian Empire (incl. Arsacid dynasty of Armenia, Arsacid dynasty of Iberia and Arsacid dynasty of Caucasian Albania)

Parthia, ancient Iran

State language 248 BC – 224 AD. Marginalized by Middle Persian from the 3rd century, though longer existent in the Caucasus due to several eponymous branches

Inscriptional Parthian, Manichaean script

xpr

xpr

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Parthian had a significant impact on Armenian, a large part of whose vocabulary was formed primarily from borrowings from Parthian, and had a derivational morphology and syntax that was also affected by language contact but to a lesser extent. Many ancient Parthian words were preserved and now survive only in Armenian. The Semnani or Komisenian languages may descend from Parthian directly or be a Caspian language with Parthian influences, but the topic lacks sufficient research.[1]

Classification[edit]

Parthian was a Western Middle Iranian language. Language contact made it share some features of Eastern Iranian languages, the influence of which is attested primarily in loanwords. Some traces of Eastern influence survive in Parthian loanwords in Armenian.[2] Parthian loanwords appear in everyday Armenian vocabulary; nouns, adjectives, adverbs, denominative verbs, and administrative and religious lexicons.[3]


Taxonomically, Parthian, an Indo-European language, belongs to the Northwestern Iranian language group while Middle Persian belongs to the Southwestern Iranian language group.[4][5]

Some 3,000 (ca. 100–29 BC) found in Nisā in southern Turkmenistan.

ostraca

dealing with a land-sale from Awraman in Western Iran.

A first century AD parchment

The first century BC ostraca from in Eastern Iran.[10]

Shahr-e Qumis

The poem

Draxt i Asurig

Inscription on the coins of Kings in the first century AD.

Arsacid

The bilingual inscription of (150–151 AD).[11][12]

Seleucia on the Tigris

The inscription of Ardavan V found in (215).

Susa

Some third century documents discovered in , On the Euphrates.

Dura-Europos

The inscription at Kal-e Jangal, near in South Khorasan (first half of third century or later).

Birjand

The inscriptions of early Kings and priests in Parthian including Ka'ba-ye Zartosht near Shiraz and Paikuli in Iraqi Kurdistan.

Sassanian

The vast corpus of Parthian which do not contain any ideograms.

Manichaean

In , Indo-Parthian culture in Taxila with Gondophares 20 BC–10 BC and Abdagases, Bajaur, Bajaur, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and down in to Sistan, Balochistan.

North Pakistan

Attestations of the Parthian language include:[9]

⟨āγad⟩, came, instead of Middle Persian ⟨āyad⟩.

⟨wāxt⟩, said, instead of ⟨gōft⟩. This form for the verb to say can still be found in many contemporary Northwestern Iranian languages, e.g. Mazandarani ⟨vātεn⟩, ⟨vatış; vaten⟩ or Sorani (witin). It is also common in Tati and Talysh, though not in Gilaki and Kurmanji.

Zazaki

⟨až⟩, from, instead of ⟨az⟩. Observe also in ⟨kanīžag⟩, handmaiden, instead of ⟨kanīzag⟩ and even in ⟨društ⟩, healthy, instead of ⟨drust⟩. The rendering of the Persian sound /z/ as /ʒ/, /tʃ/ or /dʒ/ is also very common in Northwestern Iranian languages of today.

⟨ay⟩, you are (Singular), instead of ⟨hē⟩.

⟨zamīg⟩, land, instead of ⟨zamīn⟩. The form ⟨zamīg⟩ can be found in . The form ⟨zamin⟩ can be found in Persian.

Balochi

⟨hō⟩, that or the, instead of ⟨(h)ān⟩.

The abstractive nominal suffix ⟨-īft⟩ instead of ⟨-īh⟩, as in ⟨šādīft⟩, joy, Middle Persian ⟨šādīh⟩.

Avestan language

Old Persian language

Middle Persian

Persian language and history of Persian language

Pahlavi literature

Some valuable texts in Parthian including Boyce, Mary The Manichaean hymn-cycles in Parthian (London Oriental Series, Vol. 3). London: Oxford University Press, 1954.

[ARMENIA AND IRAN iv. Iranian influences in Armenian Language Covers the massive lexical and vocabulary influences of Parthian on Armenian, (R. Schmitt, H. W. Bailey), originally published 1986.]